Reviews: [The diary of Sune Johnson (1908-1987), 31 August 1928] . . . we decided to go to the State [Minneapolis, Minnesota] where we saw “The Patriot” with Emil Jannings as Czar Paul I, Lewis Stone as Count Pahlen, his most trusted friend, and Florence Vidor as Countess Osterman, Pahlen’s mistress. It was a fine dramatic picture of an insane czar and Pahlen’s plot to get rid of him to save Russia from his rule. At the end a servant of Pahlen’s kills the czar when all other conspirators are afraid and one hour later Pahlen compels the servant to shoot him for he says “I have been a poor friend and a bad lover, but I have tried to be a patriot.” / Emil Jannings played the part of an insane man with unusual reality. When handed a portfolio of documents to sign he picks them up one by one, looks at them, and lays them down in a mussed manner without signing them. His hands seems to be groping for something that isn’t there. When an officer coughs he looks behind his chair, under his desk and in all the corners of the room. Then he would cry out “Pahlen” (he really cried out for it was a Movietone picture). / Lewis Stone did a wonderful bit of acting as Count Pahlen, a cold, methodical officer who alone could make the Czar do something rational and then only by flattery, story-telling, and appealing to the pleasures he may have with women. But he is a friend to the Czar so that he cries when the Czar fears being murdered and finally is murdered. His compelling his servant to kill him after the Czar is a very fine expression of friendship that he bore for an insane man.